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August 17th, 2006 Dear Editors, My staff and I are sad. Sad for you, for your families and friends, and for the thousands of dead, wounded, hurt, for the millions who fled before the weapons of both camps. But we are also ashamed because we know that France, and the U.N. more generally, are partly responsible for what has happened in Lebanon and in Israel. Since the Taef agreement of 1989, that had put an end to fifteen years of war in Lebanon, all armed groups had the obligation to give up their weapons to the Lebanese government within six months ... seventeen years later, this measure is still not achieved since nobody has given the means to the Lebanese government to apply it. And the Lebanese and the Israelis must suffer for a big part from this U.N. failure. I have the feeling that I can share a little bit of Lynn's particular sadness, because I am half-Lebanese (my grand-father has fled to Alep in Syria and is eager to go back home), and because I went to Beirut a few years ago, and was impressed by the new airport, highway, downtown, souk, hotels, residential districts, which are in part today, destroyed. I went to Tyr, Saida, Baalbek and I saw an amazingly brave land, rich from its diversity, and regularily hit by war since the dawn of mankind, constantly rebuilding its monuments, towns and culture. We are all now hoping. Hoping, that this time, Lebanon will not be neglected by the U.N., and that Israeli "believers" will be stronger than "tribalists" as the military option will never, to our minds, bring a durable peace. We even though surely understand that when people live in an atmosphere of constant risk of bombings and suicide attacks, they are right to demand a necessary protection from the Lebanese militia untill it is at last disarmed. France's position seems quite relevant to us, since the three stages France proposed as soon as the first days of the crisis were : first, an immediate cease-fire, then, a politic agreement, and finally, the deployment of a reinforced UN force in the South. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 resembles it in many points and it reassures us in the perspective of a durable peace between Israel, Lebanon and its intern organizations. Toutes nos pensees vous accompagnent, Damien Aubineau |
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